Once Upon a Time
by WybourneObsessed
Summary: He had been human, once upon a time. Then he was referred to not by name, but by title. Intelligence Dampening Sphere was the fancy word the scientists used for "moron". But he would be human again someday. She was going to make sure of that. -spoilers-
1. Flashback

**A/N: Hello Portal fandom! Okay, so, I've been Wheatley-crazy ever since... well, ever since I've first seen him. And I have this crazy idea for a story. So, before anyone else does something like this, I think I'll give it a shot! Because everyone seems to want human Wheatley stories. And honestly, I'm curious what would happened if he was human. Enjoy~**

* * *

><p>He had been human once. They all had. Every personality core had once been a scientist that worked at the god-forsaken laboratory of Aperture Science. Even that horrible, vile computer was once a woman. But whenever Cave Johnson became mad from the poisonous moon rocks that had entered his bloodstream, the woman who was known as Caroline had been forced to have her brain scanned and trapped inside a robot body. Just like him.<p>

Her name was changed as well, and her memories of being the kind assistant to the founder of Aperture were ground out of her as the scientists began putting core after core onto her. She had gone insane. There were many cores that had failed to make her "perfect" as they said. There was the peace core, the conscience core, the testing core, even the suspicious core. Every personality trait that had ever been invented by man, they had made a core out of.

The scientists would observe every worker there. Jot down notes on what personality described them best, what thing they were most interested in, if they had signed the wagers for "personality examination and brain transfer" which most of them had. Even he had.

His real name was William. Blue eyes, copper-colored hair, and rectangular black glasses that always slid down his nose. He was always slightly nervous about working so far down in the facility, but wasn't to the point of paranoia like one of his co-workers named Doug. It just made him a bit fidgety.

He was the main biologist in the labs. Although Aperture's response to biology was to insert animal's DNA into humans to see what would happen. Most of the time, they became mutants. Others transformed into that animal. It wasn't all bad. He had never injected anything into anyone, however. William always had a strange fascination with birds. He loved observing them. When he was in the labs alone, he would sneak one of the baby hawks out of its cage and gently, ever so gently, put it into his box-like briefcase. Once he made it back up to the surface after working, he'd take it home, watch it grow, studying it as he did, and when it was old enough to fly, let it be free.

He could never stand to be trapped. He knew what that felt like.

Oh yes, he was there when that monster had first awakened. One sixteenth of a pico-second, everyone said. That's how long it took her to attempt murder on her creators. She was too smart, they said. She needed someone to make her... stupid.

And that's how he became involved.

* * *

><p>"They really shouldn't put those cores on her like that," I said, fidgeting around with my glasses as I gently stroked a cardinal's small red head.<p>

"What else can they do?" asked my assistant, Jerry. Smart fellow, he loved biology just as much as I loved being above ground.

"At _least _let them put some kind of peace core onto her. Nice core... kind core... non-murder-instinct core. Something, Jerry." I sighed.

"You know, I heard that Nancy volunteered today," he continued casually. I raised an eyebrow. "Said she wanted to try being the 'Sassy core.'"

"For god's sake... These people here are mad. Bonkers. Completely bonkers. I don't even know why I bother working here anymore, Jer." I shook my head, cupping the bird in my hands and setting it down into the cage.

"Because Cave pays us down here good money?"

"Oh, of _course. _I almost forgot." I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes. "The pay is good, and so is being six miles underground. Thanks for reminding me."

"Just saying. You know, maybe you should volunteer as a core," he smirked, and I immediately shook my head, grabbing my clipboard and jotting down pointless notes about the red tint of the cardinal's feathers. "Jacob said that they're going to start picking people at random soon."

"And they actually think that will help?" I muttered. "I wouldn't volunteer if it was the last thing to do on Earth."

Turns out I didn't necessarily have a choice.

* * *

><p>Another tiring and yet uneventful day of work. Tomorrow was Bring Your Daughter to Work Day, too. Bloody hell, why would anyone want to bring their daughter here? If I had children, I'd make sure they stayed well above the dirt and darkness. It's like working in a mine shaft, for goodness sakes.<p>

I took off my glasses and rubbed the bridge of my nose as I walked into my home. Messy, sweet home, anyway, but home, nonetheless. Home suddenly seemed not-so-sweet anymore when I spotted the note on my table. That note changed my life.

Shuffling off my lab coat, I picked up the small piece of paper, nudging my glasses against my nose so I could focus better. What I read sent a ball of ice down into my stomach, and my heart into my throat.

_Dear William,_

You could certainly tell that this note had been sent to many other people, because the underlined spots were where the only different words were typed in. Other than that, I was sure that this same letter had been received by half of the Aperture staff. Well, probably one third. I read on.

_We have been careful to study your work habits, personality traits, and you background and/or records. We have read all of these carefully and studied them thoroughly, and we are proud to say that you, William Merchant, have been selected to run for a core transfer for our most famous (and expensive) creation yet, the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System, or GLaDOS, for short. _

I swallowed, almost too fearful to read what came next, but I had a hunch.

_The personality core that we would like to make out of your character traits is a(n) Intelligence Dampening Sphere._

Intelligence... what? Now I was starting to feel more offended than scared. I was no moron! I was a biologist! A smart one, at that! There is no way I am going to let them put me into some ball. Who did they think they were? As if the writer of the letter knew that the reader was going into objective mode, it continued on.

_Participation for this experiment is MANDATORY for anyone who receives this letter. Or you will be forced to paticipate. You all remember signing those wavers, I'm sure. No ifs, ands, or buts. However, to lighten the fact that we are going to literally strip your body of all of the characteristics we see fit, we will allow you to choose what color of an optic you would like, and what accent you would like to speak once you are in core-form. _

_Note: the accent really doesn't matter, most people either get whatever accent they had when they were human, or their's get destroyed in the transfer and they speak like robotic androids. _

_Anyway, thank you for taking the time to read this letter, and we hope to see you on the fourth floor of Aperture, in the Personality Core and Human Characteristics Transfer Room at 8:00 A.M, tomorrow. (5-20-1974)_

_-Cave Johnson, CEO, founder_

I stared in shock at the letter I had just read. Tomorrow I was going to have my personality cut out and inserted into a sphere. To say I was scared willy-nilly would be an understatement. I was on the verge of passing out. I set down the letter like it might detonate and plopped down into the nearest chair.

The experiment was mandatory. There was no backing out. I was going to be hooked onto the very machine that would try to murder every last one of us if she was awake. Which she would be, as soon as I was latched on.

Worst day ever, mate.

* * *

><p>After that night, everything gets fuzzy.<p>

I vaguely remember the bright, sterile white room where I would be operated on, and being put unconscious was a blur. Waking up however, was not.

I knew I wasn't human the moment I opened my eye. Only, it wasn't an eye anymore. It was an optic. A very blue one, at that. Like the bottoms of the ocean. Like my real eyes had been. There were humans, as well. All around, humans. Saying how the operation was a success and whatnot. I had been picked up and transported on a cart into GLaDOS' chamber, then. That was my first glimpse at her.

She was motionless of course, having not yet been activated. They were biding their time, waiting for everyone and their daughter to see. I knew this was a horrible idea. I knew it was. I just... had a bad feeling. A very bad feeling. But they clipped me onto her anyway, like a round keychain to a backpack.

Now, imagine the sensation of hearing _more than one voice _in your own head. Two other voices, to be exact. One sputtered random curious thoughts, the other some daft cake recipe, which made me regret being put into this body. I could no longer eat. Not that I had the urge to. I couldn't sleep either, unless cores somehow rested themselves to re-charge or something. I would never be the same. I was stripped of all the human qualities I once had. And I missed them.

I realized the insanity that was going on in this woman-robot already, and she wasn't even awake yet. No wonder why she was evil. It's like having schizophrenia.

But then they turned her on.

I sensed it even before my mind did. In one twentieth of a pico-second, she was alive. And I felt like a parasite, clinging desperately to her.

I could hear her voice in my head, and I was sure all of the other cores could as well. She hadn't spoken out loud yet. Not to the humans.

I wasn't even referring to myself as one, now. Why bother? I wasn't one, and that was the truth. I was an artificial intelligence now. Artificial being the key word. Fake. Like plastic. I was jarred from my internal thoughts when she hissed in a robotic voice that sounded so real I pondered if she wasn't just another helpless person that had been shoved into a computer.

"_What kind of ticks have they decided to cling to me, now? I'm curious."_

I could hear the curiosity sphere talking, now. "_Oh, who are you? You sound like a woman!" _

The cake sphere said nothing but ingredients. "_Three eggs... fish-shaped fish..." _

And suddenly, I had the impulse to talk. Or telepathically speak, whatever we were doing. I was surprised to find that my voice sounded more human than any.

"_H-hello! Hello there... GLaDOS. Is that right? Yes, GLaDOS. My name is..." _

"_I don't want to know your name." _It was like a ghost, a whisper that would haunt my mind for eternity. _"I want you off of me."_

"I. Want. You. _Dead._"

That was directed to the humans, but I felt it was to me as well. A cold feeling drained through my robotic body, like ice. I looked to see the scientist's shocked expressions, their terror.

And before anyone knew what was happening, she released the neurotoxin.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So... Did you like it? Hate it? Yeah, I know at the end of the first game you destroy those cores, but he wasn't on her, then. :D **

**Next chapter will be soon! **

**By the way, did anyone catch the references to Portal 2? There's three in there, I think. :]**


	2. Modifications

**A/N: Squee! So many reviews! You guys are truly, truly amazing. I'm honored that everyone about had the same ideas as me! Personality cores once being humans... someone even matched my theory of the turrets spot-on! I meant to write about how they were cloned from one turret which had been a person at one time, but I couldn't fit that in anywhere. x-x**

**Anyways, Meta asked why I chose Wheatley's human name to be William Merchant. The William part is the closest I was able to come to Wheatley, but it'll be better explained in this chapter! And how he became a moron. I was going to do something like they did for Chell's last name, (redacted) but I don't think it would have worked out. I couldn't think of any other good last name for the guy, anyway. Most of the wheatley fans know the little joke about Merchant. :3**

**Soooo, after the longest author's note ever, here is chapter two! Can I get some cake? Or a review? Because that would be tremendous!**

* * *

><p>After the neurotoxin outbreak, things at Aperture changed. Drastically. It turns out that Cave Johnson, A.K.A my boss who used to sign my paycheck, got some strange disease after messing around with moon rocks for some bloody portal research.<p>

It was amazing how many scientists were left after GLaDOS struck. The small amount of people alive were able to shut her down again, and all of the cores were silent after that. We were too shocked to believe what had happened. I saw it coming, mind you, but nothing that... fast. Not that striking.

I felt a sense of relief wash over me when they popped me off of the killing-machine. Turns out Cave's dying wish was to have his assistant Caroline put into her. They were working on that, hoping it would help, and took all of the cores off to work on them more.

What they did to me next was the most painful and horrifying I had ever experienced.

They set me on a table, and prodded me with every sharp tool that ever existed. Peeked into my programming, altered my sense and trail of thought.

They made me into someone I wasn't.

I was never an idiot. Not when they first put me in this bloody sphere of a body. No, they _made _me an idiot. In the worst, frightening, scarring way. I felt everything. Every screwdriver they used to drill things into me, every adjustment. I hated them for doing that to me. It took an awful lot to make me hate anything, honestly.

The thing I hated most was when they remolded my personality to their will. The only thing that kept me just a sliver of a human, my true self, they took into their own hands. They ruined my life.

The next time they clipped me onto her, I was called "the dumbest core we've ever had". They said it with pride, like it was something wonderful.

It wasn't.

I was clipped on with ole' Curious and Mr. Cake again, only this time they acted a bit more curious and a bit more like a baker. I on the other hand, was absolutely stupid.

They had already inserted a bit of Caroline into her. Cave had died not even three days ago and Aperture was in a panic, hoping this would work. You could tell by the sense of desperity in the air. I still remember that poor woman's screams of trepidation and terror from the room next to me as they held her down, ready to put her under and take her mind from her body. I remember every word she gasped.

"I don't _want _this! Please- I don't want this!" She sounded so desperate, and I wondered how the scientists were able to do such a thing without feeling the pang of guilt.

This place was a hell. It was certainly deep enough underground to be.

I missed my birds. I missed my research. I missed having legs. Walking, seeing the sun. It was all out of my grasp, too, and that didn't help.

The scientists took my memory as well. Piece by piece, like a puzzle. After a while, I wasn't able to recall what my job used to be, what my eyes looked like when I was human, even my name began to fade from my mind. My last name was long gone, I only knew that my first started with a W.

I tried to remember what it is, wracked every last part of my mind, the deepest darkest valves, but I was rendered incapable of retaining anything but the field of wheat that surrounded Aperture. Ohio really was in the countryside, with all of the crops growing there. The perfect cover up.

But those wheat fields were wonderful. I really loved art. On my breaks I would go outside and sketch the fields of wheat until my co-workers began to poke fun at me. I would just grin as they admired my skill. That is a memory they allowed me to keep.

I loved nature just as much. The colors, the sounds, the sights. It was amazing! The field that I had always sketched was the only thing I enjoyed about my job. Aperture hadn't ruined, and would never ruin, nature.

I could still picture the wheat on a sunny day. It appeared golden, swaying like a palm tree to the rhythm of the wind, bowing obediently downwards.

After hours of mulling over the amazing qualities of the wheat while they edited my programming once again, I decided that since it started with a W, and reminded me so much of what my real name was, that I was going to call myself Wheatley. I was vaguely aware that my middle name had been Lee, so I thought it was a great name.

Wheatley.

Wheat and Lee.

I wouldn't be called a moron anymore.

* * *

><p>IDS was the nickname I was given by the scientists. Of course it stood for Intelligence Dampening Sphere, and it offended me severely. At least I could still object when they daintily mocked my purpose.<p>

"So, IDS," muttered one of them, scribbling down some pointless nonsense about me, no doubt. "Say the apocalypse was imminent. And we were all trapped down here and none of the elevators were working. What would you do to save us?"

they asked me some idiotic "what if?" question every day to make sure that I would spew out some daft answer. If I didn't, they would operate on my personality chip some more, screw it back in, and repeat the procedure. I had been altered so many times, and every time more painful than the next, that I was afraid to answer the questions. I felt like a bloody bird in a cage.

"Um... well... _obviously_ the answer would be to... live on canned beans and flood water!" I was stupider than I thought.

"Alright..." the scientist jotted down more notes and put me back into a glass case where all of the other cores were lined up on either side of me. I didn't want to be displayed like some kind of museum artifact! Why did they keep forgetting that they had stored a human into every personality core here?

Maybe it's because one of those spheres used to be their friend, or co-worker.

Or their bosses' assistant.

* * *

><p>The second time I was hooked onto GlaDOS, I was the only sphere on her. They wanted to see what would happen if they took one at a time. It did not end well. At least they had successfully morphed Caroline's brain into the mad AI. It helped a bit, to say the least.<p>

"_What... are you?" _she whispered into my mainframe. "What personality?" She was allowing the humans to hear her conversation too, now. Only they couldn't hear anything I said out loud. Once I was plugged in, it was speak to her, or speak to no one.

Henry, one of the main scientists working on her, smiled. "This one is an... Intelligence Sphere." he said cautiously. Oh, so he wanted her to find out for herself? She would. And probably attempt murder again.

"I do not need such a thing," GlaDOS replied. "Am I not an Artificial Intelligence?"

"You are, you are," agreed Henry. "We are just trying to see what will help you. For science."

"Of course." she drawled. Then she mind-spoke to me. _"What is your real purpose?"_

Her voice didn't sound as menacing as last time. Honestly, it sounded more human. More curious than annoyed that I was plugged into her mainframe.

"_Me? I, um... I'm Wheatley! Hello... GLaDOS. I-I'm sure we've met... in the past. When you first had your neurotoxin outbreak. Do you remember me? At all?"_

"_I remember." _

"_Good! That's... That's good! YOu have... a very good memory. Indeed. If I must suggest something, though, with your whole "cat in the box" experiment, it's better to put holes into the box to prevent all of those cats from... dying. Painfully. From suffocation. Just a... just a thought."_

"You really thought you could fool me?" she said to Henry, who suddenly looked startled. Busted, mate, I thought. "This is no intelligence sphere. This is an idiot. Trying to _slow me down._" she growled.

"We just need to see how he will affect you, that's all, GLaDOS." Henry shuffled his feet nervously.

"I want him off of me."

"_Oh! Here's an idea! Why don't you just pop me off yourself, huh? Brilliant idea, if I do say so. Just pop me off. Eject me. I really don't want to bother you with my compan-"_

"_Shut up."_

"_A-ah. Okay, alright. Shutting up now! Yes, shutting up... In three... two... one. Shutting up for good! No talking whatsoever. Complete an utter silence. Yep, silence. Good old silence. Silence is golden, after all. That's the old saying, right? Golden silence, silver silence..."_

"_I am going to kill you," _she whined in her mechanical voice._ "You aren't human, so I am unable to use the neurotoxin, but someday I will kill you. And everyone in this room."_

I was the only one who could hear that comment. The scientists glanced at one another, then back at GLaDOS. "How is he? Helping you?" one asked.

"Oh, yes, certainly," she said brightly. "I do not feel even a pang of urge to murder. Thank you for helping me. It's all for science, after all."

They cheered, and she was silent to them, oblivious, but inside my mind she kept repeating threat after threat.

"_I will incinerate you for clinging to me like a tick."_

"_I am going to crush you. Repeatedly."_

"_I am going to make sure everyone knows how dumb you really are. You were designed to be stupid. To make me a moron, like you."_

"_I AM NOT. A. MORON."_

The stream of threats suddenly came to a halt. I froze up as well, surprised at my own outburst. Did I really just rebel against the smartest and cruelest computer ever built? That was fifty times my size and weight?

I did.

And I didn't regret a single word. I only felt angrier. At the scientists, at her, at my own stupid judgment for choosing to work at this bloody facility. I _was_ the moron here. But I would never admit it.

Finally, she spoke.

"_You're right. You aren't a moron. You're a tumor."_

* * *

><p>They left me there, on her, taking data and notes as I babbled on endlessly, unknowingly giving her completely absurd ideas. I was only driving her deeper into insanity, and I wasn't even aware of it.<p>

Eventually, the scientists came to my salvation and detached me from her. They were smart enough to shut her down, though, because if she wasn't preoccupied with dealing with me, she was certainly preoccupied in dealing with the humans.

They marked me as a "failure core" like many before me, and cast me into a room filled with dust where cores laid on metal racks, all around. There were hundreds. Millions.

And they all had been people, once.

They shut me down, and that's the last thing I remember until someone managed to confront GLaDOS.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Long chapters for the win? :3 I'm not going to do his whole point of view of Portal 2, just some little spiffs here and there, but other than that, we'll get on with the main plot! Of him becoming human~ **

**Until next time! Review, eat cake, and work on that British accent. 8D **


	3. Adventure

**A/N: Okay, it's official. I love you guys. Seriously, you're amazing! **

**So, here's the deal, yeah? This chapter is going to be set from Portal 2, but with a different ending. And from there... Hehe. Things will get fun.**

**I got a review from Ginnyisdacoolest mentioning how the timeline is off. I know it is, trust me. =] I just thought it'd be a little easier to try and re-wire a couple things around, since the real timeline has issues too. **

**And another review from Eri pointed out that risking being fired from your job or being put into a core is really an obvious choice of which you would choose. I'll elaborate on that in this chapter! Hint, hint, I edited somethin' in the first one. :]**

**Enjoy, you lovely fan boys and girls. **

* * *

><p>The word going 'round was that some smelly human had taken her down. Amazing, really. A human defeating a massive computer like her. It was unbelievable!<p>

But then when all of her other failed cores had been awakened it was post-haste to start taking care of the facility while the mighty dragon slept. We were all equipped to railings and told a bunch of rules, which I certainly assumed were rubbish.

One: Do not disengage yourself from your rail. You will die.

Two: Do not EVER turn on your flashlight. You will die.

Three: Never go into her chamber. You will die.

Easy enough rules to obey I supposed. The rails seriously got tiring after a while, though. Having to travel wherever they told you to go, like a train. I craved freedom. Or at least a decent job.

While they were all discussing which core would work where, I didn't exactly have an input. I was put to the task of making sure every test subject sleeping in stasis would stay, well, alive. Ten thousand test subjects to look after, and only one person to take care of them. Now I know why they hadn't helped GLaDOS with her murdering problem at all.

Eventually, test subjects began to die. It pained me to see their monitors showing no response; I felt like it was my fault. It was, kind of, but it's not like I wasn't trying to keep them alive! I still felt guilt weave its way into my system whenever a human died. I hated seeing things die.

A blurry memory about birds dying came to me once while I was busy closing one of the doors of a dead subject. I wouldn't look at any animal unless it had been killed by accident. That much I remember. I hadn't been some heartless scientist who studied the insides of animals. I wanted to study things while they were alive. How they behaved, what made them angry and such. It was fun to me. I had no idea why.

I just so happened to stumble on a printing and file room while I was exploring the endless directions of the rails, and I decided to take a little peek. I found many files, especially one about some stubborn test subject. Her first name was Chell, but her last redacted. Strange.

And then I found copies of that letter that had sealed my fate. It seemed like forever ago. I wonder how much time passed between now and when I used to be human. When I used to be intelligent.

The letter said that I would have been forced to participate, against my will, and I didn't doubt that one bit. Aperture had a way of manipulating people, especially with all of its employees having to sign a waver the size of a phone book.

So I leaned down on my rail, reading the different copies of different letters that had been sent to different people that ended their human lives and began their artificial ones. They were choked up with dust, so much that parts were hard to make out, but I got them in the end.

I hadn't realized what a fool I had been for working here until then. Why _had _I even considered working here? I pondered the question so many times in my mind and never received an answer. Or a distant memory. Nothing. It was completely blank.

I would have memory flashes every now and again, though. Some part of my human life would blink right before my optic, and then it would be gone, like a snowflake on a windshield. It was frustrating, until a more important one began to run past me.

It was about me as a human.

* * *

><p><em>Some man with auburn hair and glasses and blue eyes was struggling around the room where tools lined the tables and some kind of lifeless ball of a core sat next to them. He looked like a deer in headlights, his glasses were crooked on his face and his eyes were large and had a panicked glint to them.<em>

_There were nurses all around, trying to calm him, and one held a syringe. The man's eyes rounded ever more and he desperately attempted to escape the cage of the sterile white room, push past the women without injuring them, until the one poked the syringe into his arm and pushed down on the top to release its contents into him. The ginger cried out in surprise before sinking down onto the cot, unconscious, the nurses fumbling to lay him down._

_The doctor entered then, a dark-haired, dark-eyed man who picked up scalpel and cleaned it with the tail of his white coat._

_"Let's get this started," he murmured quietly._

* * *

><p>It was surprising and terrifying to see; the memories came back to me as if I was watching what happened to someone else. It might have been. I wasn't a hundred percent positive the reddish-brown haired lanky biologist was literally me in the flesh. I had doubts.<p>

* * *

><p>For about a hundred years after that the flashbacks ended and I found myself on a little adventure with a mute woman named Chell. Her name was familiar, I knew it was. She was that woman who wrote in an application for testing! She wasn't supposed to be approved, though. But she was an excellent jumper.<p>

When I accidentally activated that woman, I only dug myself deeper into my guilt hole. I can't even attempt to describe how frightened I was when she gripped me in her iron, cold, mechanical claw, crushed me like I was some kind of frail ornament, and threw me away like one too.

I landed in the murky brown water, and for the first time since I had been transferred into this bloody body, I felt pain. Searing, stimulated pain, but pain certainly. It was a strange sense, feeling the sparks fly out and dance where she had crushed my optic right out of its socket. But then this bird came...

It was the biggest bird I had ever seen! It landed there, right next to me, and pecked my optic right back into place! Amazing! I was brainstorming ideas on whether to name it Craig or Stanley when it gripped one of my handles and flew me right into the laboratory again. Thankfully, he landed right on a rail, and I automatically attached to it. From then on, though, it was one accident after another. My idiocy showed, and I knew Chell saw it as well.

But she wasn't the one having the last laugh when she hooked me onto GLaDOS' body.

It was the single greatest, most amazing feeling I have ever felt being in some mechanical ball that can hardly feel any strong emotion. I had power, I had everything at my disposal. If there was some bloke that forgot to flush the toilet? I could dispatch some turrets and have him taught a lesson. It was like being on top of the world! But of course _she _had to bring up my past, which I had tried so hard to forget.

"_You're the tumor."_

"_I AM NOT A MORON."_

"_Yes you are! You're the moron they built to make me an idiot!"_

"_N-no! You're lying – you're lying!" _

"_I'm not listening! Not listening!"_

"_COULD A MORON PUNCH. YOU. INTO. THIS. PIT? HUH?"_

And then there was the Itch.

The urge to test. Constantly. And that euphoric response that bloomed into you whenever they solved it. It was the second most lovely experience of my life.

At least, until I built up a tolerance and began to go mad with withdrawal.

Now withdrawal was the _worst _thing I had ever experienced. It felt like you would die if you didn't get that feeling. It was addicting. And when I began to see how she didn't solve the tests correctly, I decided to make her motivated the old fashioned way: _her _way.

I didn't mean for things to go that far. Not at all. They just spun out of control. One minute I was casting her and a potato down into the depths of the lab, and then the next I was trying to murder her with mashy spikes. Yep, things went way out of control.

When I was watching her solve the tests, there was this nagging feeling tugging at me. I knew that feeling: guilt. Eating away at my insides. But this body would have none of it, casting it out of me as well, until my mind was once again unoccupied.

Whenever she found her way into my chamber, however, I got a real taste of regret. Sickening regret.

She stuck the cores onto me like the scientists stuck them onto GLaDOS, and I could understand even more how she felt. It was painful. I was almost to the point of begging her to stop when she decided to go press that stalemate button. I couldn't think straight at all, not with all of these other minds talking to me, one another, and themselves. I screamed in frustration.

"_Space! Space... space. Are we there yet? Space? When? Where?"_

"NOBODY'S GOING INTO SPACE, MATE."

"_Fact: Anger and stress shortens the life by twenty percent."_

"_YOU ALMOST HAVE HIM, GORGROUS. KEEP IT UP."_

On the inside I was whimpering at how much the pain stung, like a thousand needs jabbing me in the arm, putting me unconscious to sculpt my mind into a sphere that was born to be stupid.

When I was corrupt enough, she went to go press that stalemate button. I begged her not to. I didn't want her to die – I was never a murderer. I didn't mean to be. I was honest when I kept telling her – begged, pleaded - not to press it. But she did, of course, being the stubborn woman that she is. I admit that I felt a small ounce of joy when she was actually still alive, but my body jogged me out of it and back into cruelty.

I was too busy panicking over the fires and the nuclear meltdown and the cores latched onto me to notice what she had done. She shot a bloody portal on the moon! And we both got sucked into it, me clinging on by a single wire, her clinging on by a single handle. My handle.

I felt so relieved when the voices of the cores had ceased, and for the first time since I had been hooked onto that body, I felt like my old self. No urge to test, no on-top-of-the-clouds feeling. Just tiny little Wheatley.

Tiny, little, frightened Wheatley.

* * *

><p>"Hold onto me! Please! Hold me hold me hold me!" I shouted, feeling the space core knock me to the side, her hand being knocked off of my handle as well.<p>

"Don't let go." I begged quietly. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to! Honest! Please! Hold onto me!"

Her face, behind the mask of fright, was slightly pitiful. I hoped it was, anyway, and not vengeful.

"You are _not _coming back!" I heard her voice again, and the standard fear that I felt when she was crushing me came flooding back.

"I didn't mean it! Don't let go!"

"Let. Go." she hissed, but Chell held her grip. A spindly mechanical arm rose out from the portal, and I wished I could have had arms again. A human body. A human holding onto me that I hadn't tried to murder.

But before the deadly claw could blow me into the depths of space with the other core, I heard Chell speak for the first time.

"No."

It was a clear, simple word. No. No to GLaDOS, her enemy-made-alliance. The AI's snake-like claw hesitated a moment. Then I heard her sigh. And growl.

"Only because of Caroline." she said, and violently ripped me back down from space. Chell landed on the floor next to me and was immediately unconscious. I laid on the cold floor, trembling until _she_ had gotten back into her body and closed the two portals to space. Then she looked at me.

"My, my. Look at your body. You won't survive long in that." she said thoughtfully. The next words she spoke sent chills up and down my form. I wasn't able to do anything to her anymore. I was at her mercy this time. Oh, the irony.

"You know what? I have a better idea than killing you instantly. A much, much better idea." She laughed gently, and I heard the sounds of keys being tapped.

"**Sleep mode activated."**

"Goodnight, moron. Sweet dreams."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: ...Was this any good? At all? I feel like it wasn't good. :| Your guys' thoughts? **

**The real part of this story begins, now! Woo! I'm so excited~ **

**Crit is greatly appreciated, as long as it isn't too hurtful. x-x I have feelings toooo. **

**Reviews make me update faster, by the way. I love reviews. 3 **


	4. Reborn

**A/N: Hey hey hey Portal fandom! **

**Thanks for all of the reviews so far! I know I say that in every chapter, but I can't help it! I love you guys! Love~ I love you for loving this story which I love writing to allow you to love it! **

**Anyway, enjoy, and keep those amazing reviews coming!**

* * *

><p>I never believed it when they told me that if I ever went into sleep mode that I would die. Not for a second.<p>

Until now.

I was a core the first time I awoke. A broken core, mind you, but still a nice little robotic ball. She was holding me by one of her monstrous arms again, and I suddenly had a replay of what happened previously when I found myself in the same situation.

"Oh, you're awake. I wanted you to see something." GLaDOS said, slowly turning me so I was able to see the view of a camera. I never remembered seeing the Aperture Science Medical Department before. Must have been new, considering that the facility had never once cared about the well-being of its employees, much less the injuries they received.

And then I saw her.

She was lying on a small bed, obviously unconscious, with various scrapes and bruises more apparent through the tint of her pale skin. It was Chell. There was a clearer gash above her eyebrow, dried crimson making a sly little trail down the side of her head. Broken was the word to describe it. The only word.

What have I done?

"I can feel your emotions, you know. That's the one thing the scientists kept between us. You're guilty."

Her voice barely registered in my mind. I was too focused on the damage my own actions had inflicted upon my only friend. Well... ex-friend now. How could she ever forgive me for that?

"She won't." Does that monster _ever _shut up?

"What is this, some kind of bloody guilt trip...?" I muttered. I could feel the cold twinge of metal rubbing against metal as the arm tightened its grip on me ever more. I let out a small whimper of fear.

"I _should _kill you. You deserve to die. Taking over and almost destroying _my _facility. Putting me into a potato. Trying to murder _her._" I stole a glance at Chell again. "But, I think killing you instantly is too good. You can blame Caroline for what I'm going to do."

For one, I had absolutely no idea who this Caroline was, and for two, I was scared out of my metallic skin with whatever idea she had planned for me. Dying seemed like such a better option, now that I thought about it.

"Do anything you want... I deserve it, you're right." I sighed, lowering my optic. Her orange stare seemed to go right through me, and it made me all the more frightened.

"I know you do. Which is why I'm doing this. Terrible dreams, imbecile." With that, she tightened the arm and easily crushed me like a tin can.

* * *

><p>I knew something was wrong when I had my first nightmare.<p>

Cores never were able to dream. Machines never were able to dream, either. We didn't need sleep like humans. It made us all the better, according to someone named Cave Johnson. We worked faster than humans ever wished they could.

I just had to have a bloody dream about being a monster, didn't I? Oh, yes, as if my mind wasn't already fried to a crisp with guilt.

One by one, those cores had been attached to me. I had a blurry flashback about something to do with cores in general, (brain mapping, I think) but it rushed by too fast to focus on. The only thing that pinned itself to my memory was the new-found fact that cores had once been human. The rest, I couldn't, nor wanted, to remember.

"_Are we going to SPACE?" _asked this orange-opticted core. I assumed it was made to spurt out never-ending hyper-voiced monologues about space. It interrupted my trail of thought – every time I said something to Chell, every time I fired a bomb, it had to have its own little input. About space.

"Agh! The bloody bombs are stuck–!"

"_Are the bombs in space?"_

"Doesn't matter, I've reconfigured the shields!"

It was no use ignoring the voices. Adding two more cores onto me made it impossible. Their blubbering never ceased, and it was actually painful to hear, like having too many brains crammed into one head. Why was she trying to hurt me?

"_I can't hear myself think! Bloody hell, shut up! All three of you!"_

"_THAT THORN IS GOING TO TAKE YOU DOWN, YOU CHINA CABNET_–"

"_You can see China from space!"_

"_Fact: you can see the Great Wall of China from space._"

She kept using my own bombs against me until I was corrupted enough for another core-transfer. I wasn't about to give this body up so easily, though. Didn't she know that? She would fall right into part five of my trap, I knew it. And then the adopted fatty would be dead. Everything would be _fine. _

"_Bloody – what do you think you're DOING?" _

Oh, no. I thought I took care of that voice earlier. It was something that GLaDOS had refereed to as her "conscience" in a small file in the mainframe. I tried to delete it – multiple times, but it just kept popping back up.

"_She helped you! You helped her! You are friends!" _Ha, what a lie. I deleted the voice again, it would only be temporary, but the less ramblings the better.

I didn't know what I was feeling anymore besides pain from all of these cores sticking onto me. Each one brought a different sensation. The space one brought a strange burning, the adventure one a stabbing, and the fact a stinging. It was like being stabbed, stung, and burned repeatedly. No mercy. No... nothing. Was this android hell? Because it sure felt like it.

"_Stop... stop..."_

The explosion of the bombs.

"Part five: booby trap the stalemate button!" I felt no sense of triumph inside, but my shout was swimming with it.

"_During the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland, booby trap bombs were often used by the Provisional Irish Republican Army to kill British Army soldiers and Royal Ulster Constabulary officers."_

"_Booby traps were used in Vietnam, I remember that. I invented the Grenade in a Can." _Please make it stop.

"_Booby traps are in space. Black holes are booby traps." _Just. Stop.

There were the cores, the Itch rearing its ugly little head again, the plan, the numerous bomb-hits, the frustration of it all, and the guilt.

"_Why did you ever think this was a good idea?"_

Oh, add Conscience to the list too.

What if she was really dead? She hadn't moved for at least minute. There was something tugging at me, some thread of who I once was, just a small AI in a small sphere in a small world with a small idea. It was _my _humanity. My sanity. I severely regretted everything I had done on that split moment when I felt like myself again. But then I saw the blood. A pool of deep red that boomed from under her.

She _was _dead.

But what I hadn't realized was the fact that she had managed to press the Stalemate Button before the bombs exploded.

I looked down from the gory lifeless body to find what looked like thousands of tiny, scrambling screwdrivers, all getting ready to dissect me from my mainframe.

Then there was nothing but pain.

* * *

><p>My optics quickly snapped open and I blinked multiple times to get used to the off-white light and quality of the room. I had never had a dream, and that was one of the most horrific things I had ever experienced. Never again would I let her put me into sleep m–<p>

Wait... optics? Plural? Why would I have two of them? Last time I checked, which was who-knows-how-long, I had only one.

I gasped, and then gasped at the sensation of taking my first breath. Of air. Into my lungs. Which hadn't existed before. Because I wasn't...

I wasn't human before.

I slowly let the recycled air flow out of my new... nose? It was quite an odd feeling, breathing. In and out, evenly. Wow.

I blinked again and winced at the sudden stabbing, burning, and stinging feeling that I had experienced in my nightmare. It was right above my optics– eyes? –and was slightly more painful now that I could feel my pulse in my head. I had a bloody pulse? This had to be android hell.

"Ohh... ouch..."

At least I had the same voice. Well, it was a slight mumble, but my old voice nonetheless. She hadn't done something like try to make me into some kind of female, so that was a plus. I began to experiment with my new body a bit, flexing the fingers on my right hand. Oh, it felt tremendous to move, even if all of my limbs felt like lead.

I began to reach up to ease the searing pain in my forehead when I noticed the small clear tube trailing out from my wrist. It was an intravenous drip feed, or as the humans say, IV. That stung as well, making It probable that it had just recently been eased into my vein. I lowered my hand suddenly as I felt something cold slide through the small tube and into my skin.

It was either A: a sedative, or B: a painkiller. Or a mix of both, which I immediately assumed as my mind slowly fogged over with a sluggish feeling of bliss. It was frighteningly similar to the euphoric response from testing, but it felt so much better as a human. That was the scary part.

"Hm." The curious hum of an all-too-human voice jolted my eyes open. I hadn't even realized they were closed. "And I thought you were too much of an idiot to be able to feel such a thing."

"W-what...?" I was still getting used to the fact that to speak I actually had to open up my mouth and move it at the same time. It was... amazing.

"Your reaction to a natural painkiller is normal to that of a real human's. I was just making sure."

"What was that for, a-anyways...? Was it painkiller-poison?" I propped myself clumsily on my elbows, looking at the small camera where she was obviously observing me.

"No, idiot. It was a simple opiate. That was..." she paused, most likely calculating whatever sentient insane AI's calculate in their insane AI mind. "That was test ten. Already. I've done so much to you while you were unconscious, and you have no clue or intellect to realize it."

"What _did _you do to me?" I swallowed slowly, fumbling with my fingers. I hadn't even been in this body for twenty four hours and had already developed a nervous habit.

"Lots of things. Of course, you've been out for nearly two days, so there was plenty of time to try out a few new... _experiments._"

I didn't like the sound of that at all. Not one bit. I took a deep breath, in and out, hoping it would calm me, even though the painkiller had worked its magic, putting me into a slightly sleepy state.

"Would you mind telling me what you did? Besides the whole human part? Because that, I noticed."

She sighed, exasperated. "Fine. Do you see that pendant there, on your neck?" I absentmindedly grasped for it, and felt the smooth marble on my fingertips. I attempted to raise an eyebrow, because when humans do that, it usually means that they are looking for an explanation.

"That's what was left of your old form."

The grip on the small half-sphere tightened as if I was trying to protect it from her. What had she _done?_

If this tiny thing was all that was left...

"The rest of your core is probably – hopefully – somewhere in android hell." Wonderful. Now I would have to be a smelly human forever. Unless there was some way I could re-activate myself into another core.

"...Alright. Okay. I'm... I'm... managing not to freak out. Not a problem. What _else _did you do?" I tilted my head a little to the side and ran a head through my hair. It was surprisingly soft. The sense of smell, sound, touch. Wow.

"Oh, just inserted a microchip in your skull. So if you decide to try and escape again, I'll be able to pin-point your location."

I nodded in understanding and blinked several times. She was smart, that was for sure. I gently touched my forehead where the pain had been, and found small little things imbedded in the skin. Stitches? That must have been where she inserted the microchip.

"Did you purposely make me half-blind?" I replied, rubbing my eyes. I could barely see a thing. Blurry blobs of color and shapes. Human bodies were so... un-advanced. Their immune systems were totally crap, they could easily get injured or die, and they smelled. Badly.

"No, I just got lucky with the body I picked out for you. Look on the table, idiot. There should be glasses. It says here on your file that your eyesight is twenty over one hundred. That _is _bad."

"I'm not an idiot!" I shouted, groping the table – or what I _thought_ was the table – until I felt the small sides of glasses. I carefully placed them on my nose and pushed them up, smiling to myself as everything became clear. Much better.

"Now, for your first test, I want you to stand. Or attempt to. This will be entertaining." she said. I gave her my best glare and swung my legs clumsily over the side of the bed. I wiggled my toes and then tried to stand. I was shaky on my feet – it felt odd to balance on these stilt-like legs. How did humans do it?

"Good enough. Now lie back down before you pull your intravenous drip feed from your wrist. If you do that, you will bleed to death."

I immediately fell back down onto the blankets.

"H-how are you going to take it out, then?" I retorted, crossing my arms without bothering the little tube in my arm.

"You'll see."

I didn't like that tone at all. It was her "I have something evil planned for you" tone.

* * *

><p>My eyelids fluttered open and I groaned. I fell asleep? I either hadn't had a dream, or I did and just didn't remember. I was hoping for the former.<p>

Sitting up was much easier than before. I was far from getting used to this body, though. I saw that the IV on my wrist had been replaced with a small bandage, and I rubbed the area around it softly. It was sore, and slightly bruised.

"It's about time you woke up. Now we can _really _start the testing."

"A-already? So soon? Because... Heh, I don't think I'm ready for any t-testing..." I anxiously fiddled with the blue pendant clasped onto my neck.

"You're right. You need something to eat first. You've already had plenty of sleep, so you should be able to stay conscious for at least twenty-four hours worth of test chambers."

Twenty-four hours? I thought humans needed at least eight hours out of that number. They slept for one-third of their lives, after all.

I felt a pang of something that could only be described as hunger in my middle. I put a hand over my stomach and glanced at the camera. Its never-blinking red eye stared back. "Something to... eat, sounds like a good idea, actually. If you don't mind."

"Combustible lemons or cake?"

"U-uh. Er... I'll go with cake. Cake sounds better than exploding lemons, if I do say so." I squirmed uncomfortably, waiting for my... meal, as I should call it, to arrive. There was a small _ping _sound from a clear, wide tube on the side of the wall, and a slice of brown cake was waiting for me. It did look appetizing...

"Ah! It's poisoned, isn't it?" I exclaimed, pointing a finger at her little camera. "You want me dead!"

"If I'm going to test on you, you have to be alive. Idiot. Now, eat. I don't have all day."

Reluctantly, I picked up the small plate in one hand and a fork in the other. Humans... how did they eat? They put the food in their mouth... chew it... and swallow. Sounded easy enough. I poked a small piece off and stuck the fork in my mouth. Huh. So that's what cake tasted like. It made me wonder vaguely if the lemons had a different flavor. "I have to say, I'd like vanilla next time." I mumbled through a mouthful.

Wait. ...How did I know what vanilla tasted like? Strange.

I shook my head and finished off the piece of cake, sliding the plate and fork back into the small tube and wiping my mouth just in case there were any crumbs. I hate to admit it, but that was delicious.

"Oh, good. You're done. Now we can get started." The door on the side of the room opened slowly, and I cautiously stepped through into a plain deserted hallway, using the wall for balance. Papers littered the ground, and it was ghostly and quiet. I bent over, nearly falling flat on my face, still not used to having legs and arms, and picked up one of them. It felt like it could crumble to dust in my hands. It was crisp and wrinkled and tan with age.

_Core Transfer Project: GLaDOS Behavioral Testing_

_**Core name: **Intelligence Dampening Sphere_

_**Real name of employee: **[Redacted] Merchant _

_**Purpose/what are you going to do to this guy?: **Take his memories, store them in his own hard drive so that they are inaccessible unless something reminds him of his old life. Potentially kill him and insert his intellect into a core, and edit it to our will to attempt to make GLaDOS behave. _

_**Location of the body: **Stasis pod number 1048392_

I glanced back at the closed door of what had been my room. It had _1048392 _engravedon it.

Oh, god. I looked back at the paper again.

_**Core number: **2843_

_**Purpose of Core: **To be the stupidest thing that has ever lived._

The bottom of the sheet was torn off, the jagged lines of ripped paper proving it. I stared, re-reading it again. And a third time. I read until I heard _her _voice again, reminding me where I was and what I was about to be forced to do.

"We're going to have lots of fun."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Ta daaaa! Took a bit longer than I would have liked, but I had to re-write the beginning, like, four times. D: Stupid OpenOffice. **

**I hope you liked it! Chell will be in the next chapter, silent but deadly as always. :D**


	5. Reunited

**A/N: It seems like every time I get one huuuuge review I just _have _to write. Crazy, yeah? It motivates me, that's what I love so much. Instead of just having people tell me, "Omg I love this sooooo much!" I have others who explain what they like and what doesn't make sense to them. It won't to everybody, since they don't have the same brain as me, so. :] **

**Just a shout out to Digitaldreamer, because now I really know what direction I'm taking this story. At first I was just thinking about making it all fluffy and junk, but I realize that Portal isn't about romance. At all. Period. I love Chelley, really, but I think Wheatley and Chell's relationship won't go all the way to that type of romance here. It's more like the kind of "I need you here" friendship than "Oh, I just realized I love you." ...yeah. There might be Chelley, but I'm still working this out. I'll be writing another fanfic with lots more love, though. **

**Annnd, a review from witchjuliana12 asked if I know Forte-girl. I don't personally, but I'd love to and I practically worship her human Wheatley drawings. :D**

**Another long author's note, and now a long chapter! I hope you like it~**

* * *

><p>"You know, I've been looking back at the tapes of you attempting to kill her. Great job on that, by the way." Her voice was definitely becoming bothersome now. I glared up at another camera with that horribly creepy red lense and glared. I wasn't used to being able to facially express my emotions, but it seemed to be going pretty well, the way her tone changed to match mine.<p>

"A bit nosy today, aren't we, GLaDOS?" I retorted.

There was a much-too-human-like scoff over the intercoms. "Just as nosy as you were, you little incompetent. You watched the tapes of me versing her. If it weren't for the fact that I need different gendered test subjects, I'd have stranded you in space with that other core."

"I'm not incompetent." I hissed through gritted teeth. "You're just a monster. Everything about you is a monster. Bloody evil monster..." So this is what anger felt like in a human body. It was strange. As a machine, you just felt a strange surge of sparks run through your wires, but that was all simulated into your mainframe. It was more advanced than some code programmed into an artificial intelligence coming to life when said robot should appear to be be angry, or sad, or ecstatic. I realized the true meaning of artificial, then.

Artificial meant everything about you when you're in some mechanical shell powered by a micro-chip the size of a postcard is fake. Unreal. Even the pain is simulated. I thought I had experienced pain when I was shocked silly by attempting to tell Chell how to solve the tests, but that was nothing compared to the pain coursing through my forehead due to the absence of some kind of painkiller. I was in no fit state to start testing with this maniac, much less dive into an argument with her.

"You were a monster too. Can you blame me? At all? You know what it's like to hear voices, don't you? Millions of thoughts from other minds running through your own head. Put yourself in my shoes. Oh, wait. You already have."

"At least I regret doing what I did. You don't regret anything. You don't know what it's like!" I felt my voice rise an octave higher than it should, and the pounding in my head accelerate. If I didn't calm down soon, I was going to have a heart-attack. "Where am I going, anyways?"

She completely ignored my other comments, replying, "Keep walking down this hallway. You're almost to the tests." I complied to her request, taking deep breaths as I continued walking. My footsteps echoed throughout the empty hallway, and I tried to imagine what this place looked like when everyone was alive. I couldn't help but poke my head into every used-to-be office, peeking into filing cabinets and trying to find anything with the last name "Merchant." Nothing. I sighed.

"Are you looking for something?" I nearly jumped out of my skin. I hadn't realized that _she _was still there. Always there. I would have to get used to that, too.

"What makes you think that?" I retorted, turning around to face that camera that was _always there _as well. I nudged one of the rusted cabinets closed with the toe of my boot.

"Because you're looking through files like you're on a quest for knowledge about someone. Like [redacted] Merchant."

"Why is the first named redacted? It's pointless to do that. Just like Chell's last name." I said. "Where is she, by the way? You didn't kill her, did you? Oh, if you killed her..." I could feel the anger boiling over again.

"I haven't killed her. I would already have. You really need to stop being so ignorant. If you haven't noticed," she continued, "it's redacted because I find it entertaining. You don't think that that small document that's in your pocket was placed there by accident, do you?"

"You are sick. Honestly. Sick. How can you get entertainment out of something like this? It's insane. Like you." I walked out of the small office and realized there was an elevator up ahead. A transparent one. I made my way down a small flight of steps into a circular room with screens displaying... oh, no.

On the screens were pictures of those franken-turrets I had created, me when I was in her body, Chell lying on the ground, the bombs I had booby trapped behind the stalemate button... I spun around in a slow circle, my eyes flitting around for something to look at other than the other images she was most likely showing me, but to no avail. I reached a hand up to rub my forehead, only to reach back immediately, remembering the small five stitches that were threaded there. I glanced towards the elevator, which opened up ominously.

"Y-you want me... to go in there?"

"Unless you wish to walk about two hundred flights of stairs down to the new testing areas, then yes." she replied, again ignoring my other questions.

"That sounds like a good idea, actually. Where are the stairs?" I turned away from the elevator, ready to walk back up the stairs, when the door I hadn't noticed had been there earlier hissed shut. I rolled my eyes and slowly stepped into the elevator. I really didn't trust her to gently slide me down to the testing area, and it's a good thing I grabbed onto a small handle on the side, because the next thing I knew, the elevator was literally _flying _downwards. I yelped and closed my eyes, squeezing myself against the back wall when everything came to a sudden jerking stop.

I fumbled with my glasses, shakily stumbling out from the death-ride, and leaned on the railing of the steel set of stairs that greeted me. Good god.

"What are you playing at?" I growled, catching my breath and standing up straight again.

"You thought that was my fault? The elevator malfunctioned all on its own. Sorry about that, by the way."

"Oh, bite me."

I walked up the stairs and turned my attention to the large white monitor that displayed a large

'00' and a smaller '00/1000+' at the top. Oh, wonderful.

I cautiously walked through the door to be greeted by a non-portal-surface tiled room, and two other doors. In the middle of the room were two portal guns. One was a dark gray, the other a newly-cleaned white color. I stared at them.

"What's the other one for?" I asked.

"Not 'what'. Who."

The door on the other side slid open to reveal the lady who I had tried to kill no longer than two days ago.

"...Ah. That'd explain it." I shimmied back a bit as she stepped through, narrowing her eyes slightly at me. I bet she hated me with all of her heart. I didn't blame her.

"S-so, you know about... this?" I gestured to my new body. She nodded. I didn't expect her to say anything.

"I've seen some pictures, thanks to her."

Her voice was so quiet; I almost didn't hear what she had said. It must have been in my head. Hadn't those drugs worn off? I opened my mouth as if to say something, but no words would come to mind. This is what real shock felt like, then. I was learning the feel of these emotions faster than I could get used to them. I fumbled over my words, trying to pick out the one that would ask what I was oh-so-desperate to know.

"Y-you... don't have brain damage, then?" A shake of the head.

"Of course not,"she said, strolling up and hefting the dark white portal gun into her arm. She was a woman of very few words, I noted. I did the same with the gray one, shyly stepping back and letting her go through the other door on the left before following.

"M-may I ask why?" I stuttered. Her gray eyes were like liquid steel, a thin eyebrow arching upwards.

"I have my reasons."

I had a hunch she was talking about me.

"Well, now that you two have had your reunion, let's get down to business. Good thing these new elevators are built for two."

We both stepped in and I tried my best to avoid touching her, because that glare was beginning to scare me. She didn't talk much at all. The elevator slid slowly downwards and I internally fumed at GLaDOS.

If one thing was obvious, it was that she hated me, and despised Chell only a centimeter less.

It would be a long 1000+ tests.

* * *

><p>"You promised to let me go, GLaDOS," Chell said, popping a portal under a cube and easily letting it click onto the big red button, proceeding down the hall with me on her heels.<p>

"I will after the tenth test. I just need to see if you can make him a little smarter and keep him alive long enough to get used to everything. If you hadn't been here, I'm sure the laser beams would have already killed him."

"Oi! Hel~lo! Do you not see me over here? I can hear everything you're saying!" I waved my free arm at that stupid little camera, and pointed to my ear. "I have these now! Earlobes! Merchant wasn't deaf!" I shouted. I had reverted to calling my "former" body by his – my? - last name, since GLaDOS kept leaving it redacted just to bother me. Maybe she did it to Chell too.

"The whole point of the sentence was so you would hear it."

"...Oh. Well, I still did! And I'm not as stupid as you think I am! I wasn't _made _to be stupid, you know."

"You're the moron they built to make me an idiot." she growled.

"I wasn't an idiot before that!" I exclaimed. ...How did I know what I just said?

"...How are you sure?" her voice was quiet, demanding. It was almost a whisper of disbelief.

"I'm... I'm not." I frowned, gazing at Chell. My outbursts were becomming more frequent by the chamber - she'd mock me, I'd contridict what she accused by spouting knowledge even I don't remember ever hearing. the young woman beside me was all but talkative, listening intently to the conversation. It was nice to have her actually speaking, but all in all it was every other hour.

I felt a headache coming on and rubbed my temples to ease the feeling. "Can't we stop for a bit? Humans need a little something called _rest. _Plus, I'm sore, and I think I may be bleeding..." I tentatively prodded my forehead with my fingertips, and when I brought them down dark speckles of blood dotted them.

It was then and there when I noticed that gore made me queasy to the stomach, and I quickly wiped my hand on the nearby wall.

GLaDOS sighed and opened up the door, allowing us to pass the whole test without any work at all. Brilliant. My arms hurt from hours of holding the portal gun. I couldn't complete another test if I tried. She lowered an elevator, and I leaned against the glass wall, suddenly feeling a bit light-headed. Humans really did feel odd when they were injured. "Your microchip must have shifted somehow, or the emancipation grill might have accidentally dissolved a part of it. I'll have to fix that." Her voice was calm, but it didn't ease my mind.

I nervously tried to ignore the warm feeling of my own blood pooling up around my stitches, wiping it off with already speckled hands when it began to trickle down to the bridge of my nose. Chell winced every time I did, and I tried not to let her know I was in pain.

"I-I'm almost certainly sure I'm fine. No need to worry about me. I just need a small adjustment, some surgery, some painkillers, and I'll be back on my feet in no time. Don't worry!" I attempted a smile, but she didn't return it. Couldn't say I blamed her. I groaned, the freezing glass on my back the only thing keeping me up. Something brushed against my arm, and I noticed Chell's gray eyes staring at me in concern. I released a deep breath through my nose, slumping down onto the floor inch by inch. My head hurt. Everything hurt. It all became a blurry mass of a robotic woman's voice and the hiss of metal as the tube we were riding in continued to travel.

I knew nothing more after the elevator came to a stop.

* * *

><p><em>I had called in sick the day I was supposed to be transferred.<em>

_My nerves were more than scrambled by the time I hung up the phone, nervously fiddling around with something – anything that would calm me down. I had only expanded my time to worry by waiting to get this over with._

_I was going to march right on into Aperture, tell those bloody daft insane scientists to go to Hell, and march right back out with all of my stuff in a neat little box._

_Obviously my plan didn't go exactly like that._

_I remember strolling in just as I planned, head held high, smirking with pride. I reached the biology department and proceeded to take an old box and started dumping all of my belongings in it. Jerry raised an eyebrow._

_"...What are you doing?"_

_"I'm leaving this nuthouse, mate." I replied, gently unlatching the cage door of a new species of blackbird and running my finger down its neck. I'd miss this job, but I'm sure there's a bird sanctuary with my name on it somewhere. I sighed, putting the bird back and hefting the box up into my arms. "They gave me a letter saying that I was going to be put into a ball like all of those other blokes. There is no way I'm doing that." I turned on my heel and made my way down the hall, Jerry on my heels._

_"It's not this easy, Wheat." he gripped my arm, green eyes desperately pleading. "You shouldn't have come back."_

_"You know, Aperture is a whole lot of things, but Cave Johnson is not a murderer." I continued to put one foot in front of the other, my boots gently thumping against the floor._

_"That's what you think. You should have ran! Moved! Took a plane back to Bristol! This is going to be the end of your life, William Merchant." he all but hissed to me. I licked my lips and glanced at him from the side._

_"Go back to work, Jer. I'll be fine. You'll see." I grinned at his face. Surely he was joking. I nodded my head to him. "I'll write, mate. See you on the flip side, yeah?"_

_The part between when Jerry left me to go back to his animals and the scientists arrived is still blurry and somewhat mushed together. One minute Jerry just... wasn't there. The next, they were. Oh, yes, there was a struggle. The box had been wrenched from my hands, a mug that fell shattered and layered the floor with glass. I attempted to reason, demanded to see Johnson, but they wouldn't listen._

_Panic. Fear. Adrenaline._

_A surge of strength and I managed to leap from their grip and dash like mad down the hall. I had no idea where I was going, but I kept on, and on, and on._

_There were very, very few people here, now. Yesterday was Bring Your Daughter to Work Day..._

_Something must have gone wrong._

_Eventually, hearing the echoes of numerous footfalls as they rushed to carry me away to my death, I ran down the longest corridor I had ever been in, coming to a halt at the door, rearing back when it opened._

_"B-b-bloody... hell..." I gasped, hands on my knees, eyes revealing the horror and astonishment and down-right fear at the mechanical artificial intelligence that was gently swinging back and forth from the ceiling._

_"Oh, how entertaining. A daring chase. I would love to film this and send it to Hollywood to see what they can do. Your face is priceless."_

_It just talked. She just talked._

_"Though, I have to say. Our time is short. It was nice meeting you, William Merchant. The scientists will be here to collect you in three... two... one."_

_And that's when I was yanked into the room by four strong arms and expressions to match._

* * *

><p>"Another nightmare? I wonder if it's the opiates I have to use to keep you unconscious during surgery." wondered GLaDOS as I slumped back down into the cot. I shouldn't have even bothered to tell her about it.<p>

"I have no idea, but I'd sure appreciate it if you tried using some other drug next time." I murmured, staring blandly at the IV that I was reunited with once again. We were becoming quite close. I yawned.

"So. Is it true? My real name is... is William?" I asked her shakily. She sighed, long and drawn.

"Yes. I wish you hadn't figured it out so early on, though. I was having fun observing you stress over the fact. Wheatley is extremely close to that, so I suspected you to have at least a small amount of knowledge about your identity."

"Sorry for not providing the right entertainment for your sick little artificial mind." I said, putting my fingers to my temple and wishing for some more of those opiates. I managed to prop myself up onto my elbows with not-so-much clumsiness, rubbing at my eyes. "When are we testing again...?"

"As soon as I'm sure you can survive long enough with a microchip inside your small little head."

"It's not small! And how long will that be?" I grumbled, looking around for my glasses and groping blindly for them on the table next to the bed.

"Perhaps a week. I don't like to keep track of time."

"A... a week?" I sputtered. "In here? With... this?" I gestured to my head and my wrist, and my whole body in general. "D-don't get me wrong, I love not having to test, but what am I supposed to do for a week? In here?"

"Sleep, maybe? Read Machiavelli, attempt to understand it with your low IQ. _Try to stop acting like you were a human all of your life."_ she hissed, low and dangerously. I flinched away from that camera, sinking back onto my pillow.

"Yes, ma'am," I mumbled, leaning my head back.

Sure, I hadn't been a human _all _of my life, but I had been for most of it, and I was determined to figure out more about my history. The pieces were there, they just needed to be put together to form the solution to the puzzle.

Too bad I was never good at those.


	6. Forgiven

**A/N: I'm back~ **

**Hello, you guys! Sup? Ready for summer? I know I am.**

**By the way, I've gone back and edited the little part where Chell and Wheatley see each other again! Less talking, more cold-shouldering. Yay!**

**Replies to reviews are always fun to do, sooo. 8D **

**Souzou the Insane: I read somewhere that during a interview with Erik Wolpaw states that Chell just doesn't talk because she doesn't want to give the people around her the satisfaction of a response. I don't think she's especially mute, but I'm going to make the times when she does speak very, very rare. Trust me. 8D**

**And to Digital Dreamer, I was planning on having a good old Wheatley's-begging-freak-out-apology, but I guess he was a little preoccupied with the fact that she was actually _alive, _and that she knew about him being a human. It'll come. It'll come. **

**To all of you other amazing, brilliant, wonderful reviewers that I can reply to with the same shout-out: Thank you! You guys rock. :3**

**Now, onwards!**

* * *

><p>Between the almost constant flow of drugs into my new body and the irresistible urge to sleep every moment of the day, (or night) I began to lose track of what had happened earlier in time. Either GLaDOS was being very generous in numbing my pain or she <em>had <em>to be, considering I would most likely be in complete agony if there was a lack of some form of medicine. The steady dose and the never-ending drowsiness kept me calm though, so I was happy for that.

There weren't any clocks in the small gray room and I no longer possessed and internal one. The hours – days, maybe – all bled together like paint on a canvas. I missed my old body too. The fact that it was with me in the form of a golf-ball-sized marble was comforting, but also a little unnerving.

It was always there with me, which was the comforting part. The unnerving part was the fact that she had destroyed everything except the iris.

My mind tended to wander, being loopy out of your mind tends to do that to you, so I began to recall the pros and cons of being human. Yes, I had arms and legs, but it was kind of disappointing. I was unable to go to my reference files if I needed to find out, for example, what a grumbling stomach meant. I had to find out the hard way that it meant your body needed, no, _demanded_ food. It was one of those times when I would have to struggle to sit up and attempt to tell GLaDOS what I was "bugging" her for.

"I have better things to do than waste _my _opiates and _my _food storage on you," she said as I munched happily on what she later told me had been something called scrambled eggs.

"They were made from some bird eggs Orange had found," chirped the insane AI. Oh, sure, she told me _after _I had consumed them, making me flit my eyes around the room waiting for said mother bird to come and claw my new eyes out. She never did,at least not yet, so that's a relief.

I felt a little sorry for the bird eggs, though. They would have hatched, and then the mother would have had baby chicks. I had a dream about William having multi-colored birds on his shoulders once. It was strange how out of place I felt in his – my – body. I was Wheatley, he was William. We were the same person, but with different memories. It seemed like these new memories were pushing my recent core-experience out of my own head, replacing them with a false series of what I used to be like. Used to is past tense, isn't it? That meant everything happened about a hundred years ago. I wasn't tuned and fitted and trapped in some metal sphere then.

I was different now. And really uncomfortable with having a body of someone whom I couldn't compare my traits with at all. I wanted these dreams – this version of myself that had actually not been some sort of project where your insides were transformed into nothing but wire and spark – to stop.

I thought telling _her _about these dreams would somehow help. It didn't of course, but at least she knew the reason why I would sit up in the middle of the night and nearly rip out my IV in the process. They were like nightmares that wouldn't go away, and I was terrified.

"And then there was this bird... He jotted down notes about it... I think it was some sort of crow." I murmured up to the ever-watchful camera eye, rubbing absently at my cheek. "Weird, right?"

"Indeed. I'm under the assumption that you have a... fear of birds."

"Oh, no. William loved birds. It was his passion."

"But you're... Wheatley. Not William." That was the first time she had ever said my name. It'd always been "metal ball" or "moron." Neither of which I preferred. I couldn't help but smile a bit.

"I'm in his body, aren't I?"

"You're _consciousness _is in his body. Your microchip that holds all of your emotions, your character. You're merely absorbing his memories. There is no way you could ever be considered human. Humans _feel. _Humans live. You just exist." Her words were like shards of ice, piercing me harder than I thought they would. Were these memories floating throughout my head all some illusion?

Was she the one feeding me these memories? Was that even possible?

I wanted to find out.

* * *

><p>Days passed, at least I thought they did, time was un-mark-able here, and I was still only able to walk around for a short while before becoming dizzy and light-headed.<p>

"Hm," mused GLaDOS as I plopped back down on the bed, holding my head in my hands. "Perhaps I've adjusted the microchip to have an unpleasant outcome on your health."

"Jus' make the room stop spinning," I groaned.

"Deep breaths, moron."

she must have put me under for surgery at least two more times, because when I woke up there was that familiar burning feeling in my head and the cold drug rush that was numbing it. I still didn't trust her, but I think the operations were helping. The second time I stood, there was just a small dizzying tug in the back of my mind, and then I was fine.

It was the same thing day after day. Wake up, get over the effects of the painkillers, eat, walk, nap, and then talk. To her.

I admit, it was low. But I needed _someone _to talk to. After spending so much time alone with the task of watching over sleeping test subjects who couldn't talk back if they tried, I had become lonely. When I woke her up and discovered she was mute, I was a little crestfallen. All this time I had yearned to hear someone's voice other than my own. Yes, I held little conversations with myself as I kept an eye on all of the vegetables in stasis. Wouldn't you if you were the only one left?

I had no idea what had happened to all of the other cores. They were scattered throughout the Enrichment center. Some dared to hop off their rail and were never seen again. Others just wandered aimlessly on the rails until they ran out of battery and the will to hope that one day someone would come along and set things right again. The Queen was down and out, and the facility was in pieces. Everyone noticed the lack of power, the overgrown plant life, the turrets singing sadly in the halls.

I just had to go and kick the hornet's nest.

I severely regretted asking Chell to plug me into that port in the breaker room. What was my reward for waking her up and allowing her to take control again? Getting crushed like a piece of scrap metal. I wondered if it was just the corrupted, homicidal part of her that had done it, but maybe it was just GLaDOS. The science experiment of the era gone wrong.

But we were all failed science mishaps here. Every core, every turret, every core-turned-human.

If all I was supposed to feel was simply simulated unreal pain or pleasure, where did the simulation come from? Who was responsible for putting the personality into the cores?

There was only one person who would know.

"Who was in charge of the Core Transfer Project?" I asked GLaDOS while reading over that tattered sheet that I kept in my pocket. I re-read it so many times that I could quote it by heart. But the more I read it, the less it made sense. Why had I been picked for that type of core? William wasn't the smartest fish in the sea, but he knew his way around an animal.

"That information is under a strict lock that even I cannot access."

"R-really?"

"No, I was lying."

Another sigh and another day of pacing and thinking and stressing over what Chell was doing. Had GLaDOS been forcing her through endless tests until I was fit enough to accompany her? The thought left me even more stressed. But whenever I became too frustrated, there was some kind of monitor that sent me a dose of sedatives to keep my microchip from not over-heating, apparently. If I got too stressed I would be dead before I could even say "apple."

No stress meant no death, so I didn't linger on subjects I'd rather not think about.

It held me up, and I was happy. All I wanted to do was see her, but GLaDOS refused to let me out of that room.

"You're a moron, you don't unde-"

"I'm. Not. A. Moron." It was the same reaction every time. She would always have to knock me out because I'd almost explode with the seething anger that coursed through me, causing me to clench my fists and grit my teeth. I would literally shake with the built-up rage, unable to control myself. I remember William worriedly shushing Jerry whenever he went into a fit about Cave not upping his pay, wincing as his fist collided with the wall and nearly breaking his knuckles in retrospect.

Did all humans feel the surge of emotion that I felt? Is this what living was like? Hearing the beat of your own heart, the sound of every breath, the feeling of it all?

Or was it just me?

* * *

><p>"It seems that perhaps there's been a bit of a side-effect to your previous personality transfer." GLaDOS informed me whenever I woke up from another forced sedation.<p>

"And just what, pray tell, is this side-effect?" I retorted, doing that odd thing humans did whenever they just woke up or were about to go to sleep, opening their mouths wide and gulping in air only to push it back out. I think it was called a yawn, and was usually accompanied by a stretch.

"You feel stronger emotions than what regular humans should feel. They are amplified, like some kind of speaker system. Whatever you feel, you feel twice as much as what is normal."

"Is that... a good thing?"

"No. Well, in some cases, yes. It means you can feel more pain that what you should. You'd be in complete agony without these medications!" She sounded almost dazed with joy, and I could see why. First of all, feeling any kind of emotion that wasn't simulated felt like an out-of-body experience. But now that I was going to endure a total overload of whatever emotion I'm feeling at the time, I was worried. And by worried, I mean in a state of paranoia.

"S-s-so, if I feel happy, does that mean I feel absolutely loopy? Or... like, if I'm sad, will I be depressed? What about if I'm-"

"I don't have all of the facts. I just know that you're going to have a difficult time keeping all of these new liabilities under control. You'll have to learn."

"Then learn I shall. Can't be that hard, can it? Humans keep their emotions under control all of the time! Like, when they're angry, they'll do that thing where they count to ten and suddenly – BAM. Completely calm."

There was a rush of static that I easily identified as a sigh over the intercom.

Maybe it wasn't going to be as easy as that.

* * *

><p>"Oh, I like the new boots! Very stylish. Absolutely smashing. You have to admit, I look pretty good with them on." I mused, pivoting my foot to get a better view of the gray long-fall-boots I had been given.<p>

"Yes, yes, you look amazing. Now, get out there to the testing area already. I have a task for you to complete. If you can."

"What do I look like to you? A slave?"

"Yes. Don't make me send blue down there to get you. As much as I would love to see him drag you by your legs up twenty flights of stairs, I think the ordeal might end up injuring you."

"You're completely mad, woman." I muttered, beginning to jog up the stairs.

She didn't exaggerate the twenty flights, I was almost to the point of collapsing by the time I arrived at a hub where test subjects used to wait before the testing began. I drew in a breath as I spotted Chell, sitting on a cube and holding her hand on her hand. I waved and trotted over to her, smiling as wide as I could. She simply gave me that cold stare that seemed to freeze the grin right on my face.

"Hey! So, I guess it's back to being testing partners again, yeah? Good ole' testing partners. Just like old times!" She crossed her arms over her chest, straightening her posture considerably. I rubbed the back of my neck, humans often did this when they were nervous, and frowned.

"L-look. I'm... I'm so sorry. I am. It's... how do you describe it?" I rubbed my eyes with the palms of my hands, groaning. "You're high over everything, everything is _part _of you. You feel every button being pressed, every footstep. It's like... humans wouldn't understand. And then you get it taken away. Just like that." I stole a glance at her face, which was actually looking a little questionable. "Maybe you do understand. You've been to the surface! Dragged back down here and put into stasis! I – I _remember. _Everything. I was a human, forced into some shell of a core."

She blinked her gray eyes at me, relaxing her stance and reaching a hand tentatively up towards my arm. Her eyebrows were drawn together in concern, disbelief mixed into her expression. I felt like tugging my hair out.

"All my life I've just wanted out. For three _hundred _years I've rolled on a rail without a purpose! Without a friend in the world! I wasn't supposed to _feel. _To have ambitions, dreams, wants, needs. I was William without my memories. Trapped! It's... Gah." I tugged at the strands of messy red hair, attempting to calm down. Her hand was gripping my arm now, squeezing it gently. I shook my head.

"It's not... I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Okay? I'm... I didn't mean it. It just – I want to go _home. _Up there, somewhere. I don't know where yet, but that memory will come back. They come so fast... I don't even know who I am anymore. Wheatley or William?" I sat down on the cube beside her, burying my face into my hands. I was feeling more than just sad, I was distraught.

I looked up at the feeling of a warm hand on my back. Chell was still wearing that concerned face, using one hand to squeeze my arm and the other to rub gentle circles on my back.

"It's just... so confusing. I can feel more than regular humans. S-so, that means that... I'm feeling more than... regular sadness. And such. It's... I need to know. Do you forgive me? I know, I'll understand if you don't. I just want to know. Please."

For who-knows-how-long we just sat there, Chell trying to comfort me and me trying to get my eyes to stop watering. Everything became blurry, and when I blinked small drops of salty liquid began to roll down my cheeks.

Humans called them tears.

"I-I'm sorry. It must be the – the emotional thing..." I mumbled, making a sort of hiccuping noise. I dried the tears on my sleeve and shook my head.

"I forgive you."

I barely heard her voice, it was so quiet, but so confident at the same time. Soft, comforting, and completely honest. I nuzzled into her shoulder as she held me close, rocking me gently from side to side.

"D-do you mean it?" I murmured. A nod.

"I do."

A rush of air escaped my lips and it felt like a weight had been lifted. I was forgiven.

"T-th... thank you. Truly. Thank you... Chell." I looked up at her, smiling and sniffling, and she smiled back. I'd never seen her smile that much before, or for that long.

It made me happy.

"Sorry to interrupt your little reverie, but now that you two are no longer acting like some sort of tradgic reprise of Romeo and Juliet, it's time for me to inform you of your new mission."

Turning my head up towards the blood-red eye of that familiar camera, I stood up, Chell right behind me.

"And what exactly is our mission?" I smirked upwards, smugly crossing my arms. We could handle anything now. I was sure of it.

"Find Caroline."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So sorry for the wait on this! I've been distracted. I'll update faster, next time, promise! The plot also thickens! I've got big plans for this story. Big plans indeed.**

**And this is the part where I run off to write the next chapter. 8D **


	7. Darkness

**A/N: Ohai everyone. :D Back with another wonderful chapter! Did you enjoy the cliffhanger? I bet you did. Onwards!**

* * *

><p>"Sooo. Does this mean that Cave Johnson and his little 'assistant'," I crooked my index and middle finger on both hands, bending them in quote marks. "Were basically together?"<p>

Her gray-blue ever-icy eyes slid to glance at me, then back down the hall and into an elevator. I flattened myself against the wall absently as she stepped in.

"I'm not sure." she murmured quietly.

"Well, what's with this 'find Caroline' business? She's dead, isn't she? In her mainframe. She _is _Caroline!"

A statical sigh from the speakers echoed throughout the glass to remind us that we weren't alone. "I deleted her from my mainframe."

I scoffed. "That's a lie! A full-out lie! You always are lying. Lie lie lie. It's like a hobby for you!"

"One of my favorites," I lightly tapped my foot on the floor of the elevator, trying not to think about the walls closing in. "But that's besides the point. I want you to find Caroline. She's at the surface."

Silence.

Besides the hum of the sliding pod we were in, everything was quiet. Terribly awkward for all three of us, I'm sure. So I decided to break it like a chunk of ice.

"Ah – what?" It came out as a bubble of laughter, my accent thick with disbelief.

"You heard me, moron."

"Don't call me. A moron." That flare of anger that always sat quietly in my belly sparked again, making me take a deep breath and rub my temples.

Chell frowned lightly at me and sighed, hoisting the portal gun onto her shoulder. "The surface."

"Yes. The place that you killed me to get to, if only for three minutes and fifty-two seconds before you were dragged back and put into stasis."

I blinked, my eyes meeting the black-haired woman's. "You've... been up there before?" I pointed upwards as if to emphasize my question. I noticed the lift was going upwards as well. Was it really going to be this easy to escape? Chell nodded, slowly, looking a bit unnerved. "Ohoho! Man alive! What's it like up there? What's the sun like? The stars?"

"She was only up there for three minutes! She didn't see much besides parts of my body falling from the sky."

"Shh!" I scolded the AI, then turned my attention back to Chell. I gripped her wrists gently, beaming. "What's the surface like? You've got to tell me!"

"What I saw was years ago... I don't know what it's like now." she said. I wish she'd speak up, I can barely hear her!

"Come on, luv. I need to know. Please?" Her eyes narrowed slightly and she tried to tug her hands free. I kept my grip on them.

"I said I don't know." She grit her teeth and bared them, choosing to try and stomp on my foot with her pretty little boots. It didn't hurt of course, because I was wearing the same kind.

"How can you not know?" I exclaimed, throwing my hands in the air and letting go of hers. "You were the one that killed her! You didn't even tell me! You never talked! Why? Just because you're stubborn!"

She huffed and settled for kicking me in the knee. I gawked in pain and bent down to hold it while she mashed herself up against the far side of the elevator, holding the portal gun out like a shield. "Don't touch me again." she threatened, and I nodded, jerking to the side as the elevator stopped. Bloody mood swings.

"Don't try running away, either," GLaDOS said as a hatch opened up to reveal sunlight and a large... wheat field. "I have a tracker implanted in his skull, so I know where you both are at all times."

"Point." I murmured, touching my forehead again and stepping out into the world behind Chell.

* * *

><p>Everything was deserted. We clambered through the scratchy wheat and sweated in the sunlight. Eventually we reached a point where the stalks seemed to go from yellow to brown. They must have died over time, but the flattened plants were easier to walk on.<p>

"W-where are we going?" I asked Chell after hours of nothing but swishes of wheat to ease our ears.

"To find Caroline."

"But... this doesn't make any sense." I said, puzzled. Caroline was dead. GLaDOS was insane. I was now a human. "None of this makes sense!"

"Sh." she said exasperatedly.

I licked dry lips and followed, shutting my mouth for the time being.

The first thing I noticed was that the sun seemed to get redder and lower in the sky. Everything cooled down and became darker as well, and I was worried.

"Uh, Chell. What's happening?" I questioned, looking at the now pink sky.

"It's almost night. We have to find somewhere to stay." she answered, stepping out from the wheat and finally placing her feet onto something hard. I did the same, looking at the faded yellow lines that sat in the middle.

"What's this?"

"A road."

"And what are we going to do on it?"

"Follow it until we reach somewhere where we can rest."

"Brilliant."

And so we trudged on.

And on.

And on.

The field was on either side of us, dead and brittle little pipes broken and cracked. I felt sorry for the wheat. Poor wheat.

I felt sorry for myself as well. I would have been happy floating around in space. Forever. But now I was a human.

"...I'm a bloody human." I whispered into the night, my breath fogging in the cold air. I glanced upwards and saw the small speckles of stars. Tiny pinpoints of light millions of miles away. I blinked my non-mechanical eyes. Not eye.

Because I was human.

"Human. Mammal. Male. William." I listed off into the silence, ignoring Chell's troubled look. I touched my neck clasp, gently untying it from behind my head. Putting the little oval in my palm, I saw something reflected in it. A white circle. My eyes slid towards the sky again and I saw what it was.

The moon.

Suddenly, I heard a gentle humming out of nowhere. Someone was singing a lullaby. To whom, I had no clue. I remembered something about that song. It was eerily familiar.

"_The stars, the moon..._

_They have all been blown out._

_You've left me in the dark..."_

"No dawn, no day," I mumbled, ceasing my trek along the road and staring into the endless distance. "I'm always in this twilight."

"_In the shadow of your heart."_

The world seemed to merge into one giant spiral, swirling and mixing until it was nothing but a black star-sprinkled jumble of confusion. I collapsed onto my back, but the ground wasn't hard like the pavement of the road. It was soft and seemed to sink me into it, like quicksand. The humming continued, floating along in the darkness and leaving behind it a trail of memories.

"_And in the dark, I can hear your heart beat."_

"I try to find the sun." I looked around, standing up and watching as giant screens of static appeared out of nowhere, circling me with the music. Each screen gave a 'pop' and images that I had never seen before replaced the jumbled static.

"_But then, it stopped."_

"_Ten hours in the darkness."_

There was a woman with dark brown hair, heels clapping down the hall as she ran to who-knows-where.

The same woman was holding a picture of a little girl and crying.

Another screen was mixed with a digital look, as if it were in some sort of computer mainframe. The woman in that picture looked like she was in some kind of cage. Numbers made up the picture, only adding to the frightening nature. It had an orange tint to it.

The next picture was one of William. It had to be. He sat in the corner of the cage, surrounded by a blueish hue that spread to whatever he touched. There was a laugh that went from a chuckle to an all-out power-hungry cackle and he winced, glasses cracking.

It was my laugh.

"_So darkness you became."_

The woman saw this and went over to the man, kneeling beside him and pulling him into an embrace. Her orange tint mixed with his blue and they were left in a murky color, but they didn't seem to mind. The music stopped for a moment and the screens froze with the absence. I did as well, wide-eyed and as confused as ever. The screens all suddenly exploded into spider-webbed cracks, and the glass rained down on me.

I was left spiraling back off into an even deeper, unconscious darkness as the humming resumed, carrying me with it.

"_And I heard your heart beating, you were in the darkness too._

_So I stayed in the darkness with you."_

* * *

><p><strong>AN: …Late chapter is late. And confusing. Please, please don't judge me too hard for where I plan to take this story. I bet you will judge me, but at least it'll be an original plot? **

**Cake for anyone who knows what song that was. :3**


End file.
